Tension peaked at Mount Panorama as James Golding dramatically snatched the fastest lap time in the dying seconds of the practice session ahead of the Repco Bathurst 1000 qualifying. Driving the Ford Mustang GT for Blanchard Racing Team shared with Richie Stanaway, Golding posted a stellar lap time of 2:04.6490 on his final tour. The effort shattered the threat of a complete Chevrolet lockout at the top of the pre-qualifying timesheets.
The impressive charge forced Jack Le Brocq of Matt Stone Racing down to second place, trailing by a narrow margin of 0.1123 seconds. The rival manufacturer's dominance had looked ominous with Chevrolet threatening to sweep the top four positions before Golding's last-gasp effort turned the session on its head.
Further down the order, the battle at the sharp end intensified as Anton De Pasquale of Team 18 secured third position, edging ahead of PremiAir Racing's Jayden Ojeda and Erebus Motorsport's Cooper Murray, who rounded out the top five fastest drivers.
Meanwhile, technical drama struck the Dick Johnson Racing camp when Brodie Kostecki was forced to pull up his car with 20 minutes remaining in the session, prompting the team to confirm an engine change ahead of the qualifying session.
Dick Johnson Racing team manager and race engineer Tom Moore detailed the technical hurdles. "Just feels a bit doughy going up the hill," said Tom Moore. "The microsectors aren’t that pretty. There’s a lot of red squares on the speedtrap. It’s Bathurst, you don’t leave anything unturned."
Moore added that the chassis balance was otherwise in a good window for the driver ahead of qualifying. "The balance was pretty happy then. He was pretty happy with the car for qualifying, so we’ll take the time now to get hooked into the engine change and get it back on track for qualifying and hopefully it’s a bit quicker in a straight line," he concluded.
Following the frantic session, the top ten was completed by Aaron Cameron, Zach Bates, David Reynolds, Broc Feeney, and Chaz Mostert. Grove Racing appeared to keep their powder dry with Matt Payne and Kai Allen finishing 12th and 13th respectively, ahead of the official Repco Bathurst 1000 qualifying showdown.
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